Impact of new professional profiles of the sports kinesiologist, preventive and adapted motor activities kinesiologist and of sports manager in the current university education

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to understand the impact that this reform has had on sport sciences masterly students in Italy, in terms of perceptions and opinions, and what kind of feedback it has had in their university education, in terms of coherence. Methods: The sample represents 288 sport sciences masterly students divided into sports kinesiologist (N=162) mean age of 25.7 (± 5.7); kinesiologist of preventive and adapted physical activities (N=66) mean age of 27.3 (± 7.1); sports manager (N=60) mean age of 27.4 (± 9.3). A questionnaire submitted through Google Forms and sent to masterly students of the University of Salento and Salerno was used. The data (age, gender, university provenance and current study path) were presented as means and standard deviations, while the percentage frequency of responses was reported for each item, using the chi-squared test. The level of significance was set with P <.05. Results: The knowledge of the sport reform and the impact of the sport reform among the 3 masterly classes gave a not statistically significant result (P=.30; P=.63). The perceptions of job opportunities and strengths offered by this reform, for each of the professional figures, gave a significant result (P=.0001; P=.0001). The coherence of one’s university education with the respective professional profile was found to be significant (P=.0001; P=.01). Conclusions: The knowledge of the sport reform is homogeneous in the 3 masterly classes analysed. Regarding perceptions on job opportunities, sports kinesiologist (LM68) and preventive and adapted physical activities kinesiologist (LM67) courses are affected by the spaces already occupied by sports federations and health figures; while sports manager (LM47) showed some confidence in the new opportunities that this profile offers. Finally, some reflections emerged regarding the need to have a university education more coherence with the professional profile. Keywords: reform, physical education, professional profiles, perspectives.